Sunday lunch--Pasta with creamy pesto sauce and Zucchini Bread

There are very few things to do when it is dark and snowing here. One thing I do is cook and I've been doing a lot of it. On Saturday, I decided to make pesto with my food processor (which by the way, I love this thing. It will be worn out before I move). I had ordered .25lb of organic,fresh basil from Full Circle farm for $3.00. The recipe was so simple.
2 c. fresh basil
1/4 c. toasted pinenuts (I toasted them myself in a dry pan)
1 c. Parmesan cheese (I used the kraft green top because I can't find the real stuff here)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 c. oil (it calls for olive oil, but I used canola oil)
Add everything to the food processor. Pulse until it looks like pesto. I suggest letting it sit for 30 minutes to let the flavors combine, unless you like for the garlic to bite you back. I had it refrigerated over night.

In the mean time, I made Zucchini bread with the zucchini full circle sent last week. My friend Daisy had made it the other day and I decided I would as well. This version is more like a dessert bread since it has chocolate chips in it. (I think it would make good muffins) It is a very good bread for what it is. I think I like savory foods more than sweet foods. But again, it was very good. I might use thick slices and make french toast. The recipe makes 2 loaves. The first loaf I greased the pan, but the bottom still stuck to the pan. For the second loaf, I also floured the pan. I recommend doing this. It made life so much easier.


So today, we were watching the show, "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" on the food network. This show travels all over the US to different restaurants to see what foods each one makes. Watching the food network is one of our new past times. It also has the added side effect of making us hungry. I decided I wanted some pasta and creamy pesto. I had figure out a way to make a cream sauce. Here is what I used:

3 tbls. butter
2 tablespoons flour
2 c. milk
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (again with the kraft green top)
salt and pepper
fresh made pesto
Melt butter in sauce pan on medium-high. Whisk flour into the milk. Get rid of all the lumps of flour. Add to milk to melted butter. Now, you must continue to stir the mixture until it starts to thicken. When it starts to bubble, remove from heat. Add cheese and pesto. Ta-da. Creamy pesto sauce. I added it to pasta. It was so awesome. I only wish I had some garlic bread to go with it.


Tonight I plan on making Chicken tortilla soup with cornbread muffins.